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Game of Thrones Season 4 finale: Do you know where your children are?

So many Game-changers were crammed into episode 10, “The Children,” we couldn’t have asked for more. A little less might even have been better.

Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) and the Hound (Rory McCann) in the season 4 finale of Game of Thrones. (HELEN SLOAN / HBO)

By Ariel TeplitskyToronto Star

Mon., June 16, 2014

Spoiler alert: Don’t read on if you haven’t seen Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones.

Think of the children — Starks, Lannisters, Baratheons, dragons and those eerie-looking imps who lurk under magical trees.

That’s exactly what we did on “The Children,” the Father’s Day episode of Game of Thrones, a tumultuous season 4 finale, which the producers promised would be the most eventful and thrilling one yet. They did not disappoint.

Where past seasons’ finales functioned as a sort of chill-out room for the party of the previous, blood-strewn episode, this one had nearly as many Game-changing surprises and plot turns as the preceding nine episodes combined. By the time we got to the final climax involving Tyrion Lannister and his dear daddy Tywin, it was easy to forget any of the heart-pounding developments that had happened earlier in the hour.

Though these developments were highly satisfying in themselves, and certainly more so than the extended battle sequence upon The Wall that was the entirety of episode nine, it was probably too much of a good thing. Most Game of Thrones episodes are expertly paced, brilliantly balancing moments of gore with sharp dialogue and amusing trivialities, and interspersed with the sort of rousing monologues that beget Emmy Awards.

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There were simply too many stunning things happening onscreen this time to properly catch one’s breath and reflect. Then again, that’s what we’ll be doing for the better part of a year as we impatiently await season 5.

And that was also the true function of this finale: to sweep away the old story arcs and take the show in new directions next year.

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Here are the highlights of Sunday night:

1. Stannis takes the North

The episode begins where the last one left off, as Jon Snow ventures north of The Wall, past the dead wildlings who were left behind during the previous night’s retreat from battle, to the camp of Mance Rayder, whom he intends to kill. Snow seems to get there in no time at all, a sure sign that the episode has a lot of ground to cover in just an hour.

But Rayder wants to talk peace, requesting that the Free Folk he sort of governs be allowed safe passage beyond the Wall; otherwise they will be killed by the White Walkers when winter comes. They drink a toast to the late Ygritte, and to the giant felled in the tunnel, but Jon Snow barely has time for a sip of grog before the forest camp is swiftly attacked from two sides by Stannis Baratheon’s cavalry. The army’s perfect timing seems far-fetched, but best not to overthink such plot contrivances.

Mance surrenders, but Snow finds sway with Stannis, “the one true king,” who respected his father and seems to agree to not have the vanquished “king beyond the Wall” killed.

2. Bran finds the tree of hearts

Farther to the North, Bran Stark and his weary pals seem close to giving up their journey when they spot a warm glow over the horizon emanating from the heart tree that Bran foresaw. They hurry towards it across a field that soon comes alive, so to speak, with reanimated, knife-wielding skeletons. One grabs Jojen’s leg, and his sister fights to free him; Bran uses his “warg” skills to inhabit Hodor’s body and fight off the corpses, but the dead outnumber the living. That’s when a strange, grimy-looking girl appears at the tree, hurling nifty fireballs that incinerate the skeletons. She beckons the friends toward her, but Jojen, repeatedly stabbed by the skeleton that snared him, is lost, and his sister Meera tearfully ends his life at his request, then runs to safety with the others in a cave beneath the tree.

And who is this girl? “The first men called us the Children, but we were born long before them.” That hardly counts as an explanation. But at the base of the tree, seemingly even a part of the tree itself, is an old man whom Bran immediately recognizes as the three-eyed raven from his premonitions. The man tells Bran that he’s been waiting for him to come, to retrieve what he has lost. I will get to walk again? Bran asks hopefully. “You will never walk again,” the man responds. “But you will fly.” Bran seems pleased with the substitution.

This entire sequence marks something of a departure for the show. Where myth and magic was previously a fringe experience — a raven here, a White Walker there, the occasional dragon flight — this was arguably the show’s first significant extended sequence set entirely in the realm of the supernatural. Expect more in season 5.

3. Dany tames her dragons

But while one form of myth is unleashed, another is chained, as we return to the familiar hall in Meereen where Daenerys listens to the concerns of her subjects, including one wailing man who presents the charred remains of his daughter, dropped from the sky by one of her increasingly uncontrollable dragons, the large one named Drogon, who hasn’t been home in days. In a surprisingly wrenching scene, Dany attends to her two remaining reptilian offspring in their den and locks a heavy chain around each of their necks. She walks away without looking back as they shriek miserably.

4. Incest is back in vogue

It’s not the best of days for Lord Tywin Lannister, who has to put up with not one, but three rebellious children.

Cersei’s curious mix of manipulative monarch and unconditionally loving mama comes to the fore as she threatens to reveal her family’s darkest truth to protect her only remaining son from the throne: that this very son, Tommen, is the product of incest with her brother Jaime. Tywin seems genuinely surprised by this revelation and still refuses to believe it. She then returns to her brother’s embrace, reaffirming him as her true love, and damn the consequences.

He breathes a few words in defence of their doomed dwarf brother Tyrion, whom Cersei despises, and then brother and sister are back to their favoured pastime: ripping off each other’s clothing on top of exotic furniture.

5. Tyrion unchained

But Jaime’s loyalty to Tyrion is true, descending into the dungeon on the night before his brother’s execution to remove his chains and let him escape, with the help of an unlikely accomplice: the bald and wily royal advisor Varys.

What happened next was so unexpected and extreme I wondered if it was merely a dream sequence. Would the show actually permit poor Tyrion to exact direct and utter vengeance upon his hateful father? Yes, it would and he did.

Instead of climbing the stairs to freedom, where he would be whisked away incognito by Varys, Tyrion chose an alternate route out of the dungeon, making his way to Tywin’s quarters, where Tyrion is shocked to find his traitorous lover Shae waiting in his father’s bed. “Tywin, my lion,” she coos, rubbing Manticore venom in Tyrion’s wounded heart. And then she sees him. Shae grabs a knife and he lunges at her; they struggle briefly until he clutches her necklace, tightening it around her neck, squeezing the life out of her with a potent mix of anguish and rage. So he was innocent of regicide, but he’s a bare-handed killer now.

And he doesn’t stop there. Carefully taking a crossbow from the wall, he finds his always regal father at the most vulnerable we’ve ever seen him: sitting on the toilet. (Or “privy,” which sounds so much nicer.) Tywin tries to talk his way out of the men’s room with words that ring hollow. Sure, he’s always wanted the dwarf dead, but he admires him for repeatedly refusing to die. He even claims that he would never let Tyrion be executed, even though he gave that very order: “You’re a Lannister! You’re my son!”

But it’s referring to Shae as a “whore” — twice — that seals Tywin’s fate. One arrow to the chest and he immediately goes back on his words. “You shot me!” the father exclaims angrily. “You’re no son of mine.”

Calmly, and still sadly, Tyrion replies, “I am your son. I’ve always been your son.” And a second shot finishes the job.

So that happened.

Finally, Tyrion catches up with a worried-looking Varys who asks, “What have you done?”

By the time the dwarf is hidden in a crate and loaded on a ship, a bell is tolling at King’s Landing, and Varys seems to realize he is an accomplice to more than just ferrying an innocent man away from his execution.

6. Arya unchained

And that would have been quite enough for us to chew on between seasons, but we were also left to ponder the future of young Arya Stark — no word on Sunday from her sister Sansa, though — who is fought over in a thrilling and nasty duel between Brienne of Tarth and the Hound, both of whom consider themselves Arya’s protector.

The two are quite evenly matched, but the Hound plays dirty, using rocks and his bare, bloodied hands to get an edge, but she manages to send him toppling over a short cliff. But by this point, Arya has taken to hiding.

She appears again at the bottom of a hill where the Hound lays dying, suffering from multiple wounds, and she sits emotionless while he repeatedly asks her to end his life and his agony. Chillingly, she doesn’t oblige to cross the Hound off her kill list, even as he begs. But she does take his money. How far Arya has come in four seasons, from feisty daughter of Ned Stark to cold-blooded non-killer.

And rather than join Brienne, she goes it alone, talking her way onto a ship nearby that’s headed to Braavos. Remembering the coin given to her by Jaqen, the mysterious assassin from season 2, she presents it to the captain and says, as instructed, “Valar morghulis.” Impressed, he responds, “Valar dohaeris,” and promises Arya her own cabin on the vessel, which sets sail towards the choppy waters of season 5.

Cue the Game of Thrones theme song, with the witty addition of a children’s choir.

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